Welcome to Shruti's Movie Review of...

The Movie:

What happens when an eighteen year old girl becomes the victim of a heinous rape and murder?

What happens when her family, a widow mother, a twin sister and a six-year-old kid sister is left shattered by this unspeakable crime?

What happens when there is a ruthless enemy, and a frightened but determined girl in search of justice?

What happens when she finds unexpected love?

What happens is the story of Dushman. Gokul Pandit(Ashutosh Rana), is a postman who has an endless sexual appetite. He can be named a qualified rapist, whom all girls fear. He brutally rapes, and then murders his victims who turn out to be girls staying alone. One of his victims happens to be Sonia Saigal (Kajol No. 1), a brash, unruly and happy-go-lucky character, who he rapes within her house. Naina (Kajol No. 2), Sonia's twin sister and a constrasting character, is terrified by this, and begins a search filled with fears for the murderer. She does this against the will of her mother (Tanvi Azmi) as well as defies the ACP's (Pramod Moutho) warning and ventures the dangerous task. After running from pillar to post, she finds the criminal and accuses him in court. Unfortunately, her efforts are wasted due to Gokul's girlfriend, who melts when Gokul promises her marriage; the law is helpless and leaves him free again.
Naina feels aggitated and decides to punish Gokul herself, and while trying to do so, humiliates him by saving another going-to-be victim. Now Gokul becomes furious and decides to take revenge on Naina by promising that he will treat her in the same way as he treated her sister. He chases her around as if his only obsession in life is to kill her. While trying to escape the vicious rapist, Naina crashes into an ex-army man Sooraj Singh (Sanjay Dutt), who was once a Major. He soon becomes her moral support, and helps her by training her in self-defence. He tells her that she is right in asking for justice, and that she has to fight for it alone. She should be totally independant.
Major saab's encouragement not only helps grow courage in Naina's heart, but also love for her rescuer. Naina is now filled with a new power, and is ready for Gokul. She literally invites him into her house for a one-on-one fight with him. After a strong fight, Naina is just about to be defeated when the blind ex-major comes and rescues her.

When Pooja Bhatt makes a film, two things are slowly becoming the norm; that it will be quality cinema you're viewing, and that the topic will be sure to touch your heartstrings.
Tight editing makes the film hold well, and the songs are well-placed. Kajol proves once again how versatile an actress she is. One may say that the film has just been produced for her to once again show that she is simply unbeatable! And Dutt's performance looks like it will win him the accolades that have been dodging him. He seems to surprisingly be excellent at doing roles in which he is disabled in some way, his last such performance being Saajan. But the pick of the cast is newcomer Ashutosh. All in all, an unmissable film.

The Music:

The music of this movie is given by Uttam Singh, who previously won millions of music-lovers with his magical compositions in Dil To Pagal Hai. The two best songs are Aawaz Do Humko and Pyar Ko Hojaane Do. Lata Mangeshkar seems to be the main female singer, making the songs sound marvellous. Aawaz Do Humko is really sung well, and it wins the listeners' hearts, especially when Udit Narayan's extraodrinary voice is added to it. Chitthi Na Koyi Sandes is an okay song; Jagjit Singh manages to make it very touching through his magical voice, although it is rather slow compared to the rest of the scores.